I first saw The Graduate freshman year in college with a group of friends, and it left such a wonderful and deep impression on me. Dustin Hoffman! Mike Nichols! And yes, what an ending. Movies changed for me that day.

I recently watched The Graduate again and, at this doddering age, the ending felt very different than it did when I was young.

Now I can see the soberness seep into their faces. And "The Sounds of Silence" provides exactly the right touch of somber reality.

What I know now, that I didn't know 30+ years ago, is that the passion drains away and is replaced by much more complex feelings of like and dislike. The last 30 seconds of The Graduate captures this natural process as well as anything I know.

Also, a must read: "Pictures at a Revolution," which tells the detailed stories of The Graduate and the four other films nominated for best picture Oscar in 1968, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Katherine Ross is, to me, one of the most beautiful women in film. She exemplifies the simple, girl-next-door beauty of the late 60s that makes me wish I had been alive then. She has a doe-eyed innocence and excitement that I like to think was rampant among the youth of that time. Plus, she is married to Sam Elliot, one of the coolest guys EVER.

"If only all blogs were as life-affirming and tender-hearted as that of gallerist James Danziger. Whether his focus falls on the work of an individual artist or a particular theme, The Year in Pictures is compulsive reading."